Traditionally, video games have mostly been played on hardware that is stationary and local to the video game user. Users usually go visit a video game arcade to play arcade video games, and home video game users typically purchase a home video game system such as the Nintendo GameCube System or a home computer to play video games at home. To play a game at home, the user usually selects a video game on a optical disk or other storage device (or in the case of a personal computer or other system, he or she may download the game from the Internet or other network) and controls the local hardware to begin executing the game. The game is displayed on the user's home television set or computer display.
As the opportunity for leisure family travel has increased throughout the general population, the travel industry has adapted by providing travel facilities with many of the comforts of home. Many hotels now have amenities for younger travelers to make a family's stay more pleasant and convenient. Similarly, airlines now routinely show movies, videos and other multi media during flights to entertain younger passengers and help them pass the time. Cruise lines generally attempt to provide luxury accommodations including all of the comforts of home for travelers of all ages.
Playing video games can often be an excellent way to pass the time while waiting to travel or during travel. An airplane or train ride may seem to pass more quickly if one is able to spend the time playing a challenging, fun interactive video game. Similarly, the idea of taking young children to a hotel or on a cruise ship may be daunting unless one has a way to entertain the children and keep them from becoming bored. The ability to play video games in hotel rooms and cruise ship cabins is a significant benefit to parents and other caregivers who wish to entertain children and keep them busy and occupied.
To meet these needs, systems were developed in the past for distributing video game play among a number of users in a hotel, airplane, or other context. It has been possible in the past for an airline passenger to play video games on a so-called “seat back controller”—basically a miniature personal computer installed within the back of the airplane seat in front of you. Also, it has long been possible through a television distribution system commercialized by LodgeNet to play Nintendo video games in a hotel room using a standard television set and hand held controllers.
While the technology described above has been successful in allowing airline passengers, hotel room guests and the like to play video games, a need exists to extend this technology to passengers in a car. The term “car” is a broad term and refers without limitation to any personal transportation vehicle, e.g., passenger automobile, a truck, a van, a minivan, a sport-utility vehicle, a recreational vehicle, industrial and farm equipment like tractors and combines, a motorcycle, a scooter, a personal boat, a personal airplane, etc.
Nevertheless, certain features, aspects, and advantages of the embodiments described herein can be used with other vehicles. Although handheld and other portable game playing devices, like NINTENDO GAMEBOY and laptop computers, are options for car entertainment, one of course must remember to bring the handheld or portable device when traveling. Game cartridges, CDs, etc. relating to different games also must be brought for certain gaming platforms. Users must also provide a place in the limited space of a car compartment to store such devices. And such storage space may not be readily accessible to the user, particularly when the car is in operation. It would be convenient to include a video game playing system in the car itself with storage and selection from a wide range of games already included within the system. Moreover, such a car video game playing system could offer larger display screens as well as larger, more sophisticated, and easier to use game playing control devices. Indeed, existing display(s) and/or speakers in the car may be advantageously employed.
Additional factors must be considered including providing some functionality to provide a “rugged” or robust video gaming system that can withstand considerable bumping and abrupt movements associated with car driving and still reliably function. Extreme temperatures experienced in cars must also be accommodated. In addition, cartridges, cassette tapes, and optical disks and other removable game storage media require insertion into a game playing machine or PC, but may be less suitable for such a rugged environment. A more robust and hardened game storage, selection, and/or execution approach is desirable.
It would also be desirable to utilize not only existing game platforms but also non-gaming platforms that already exist in cars, e.g., car radio and sound systems, CD players, DVD players, GPS systems, televisions, etc. in order to keep cost to a minimum. The inventors recognized the benefits of integrating a wide variety of entertainment and other services in addition to gaming in a car. Security of the game content is also an important issue and mechanisms should be established to safeguard that content from misappropriation and other misuse. Another goal is to provide a car owner, car entertainment store, car dealer, or other entity with an easy way to obtain new games or update existing games stored on the car gaming system.
The present invention solves these and other problems and concerns by providing an integrated, reliable, rugged/hardened, secure, inexpensive, and readily updateable car control and service system that performs various car control functions and offers a variety of entertainment services including video gaming.
A car area network is disposed in a car to enable communications between various devices in the car. An existing consumer electronics device (CED) coupled to the car area network (CAN) performs an existing consumer electronics device function. That existing (CED) is adapted to control various devices coupled to the CAN including video gaming devices. In one example game server embodiment, the adapted CED cooperates with a game server to effect game play. A multifunction controller transmits control information to the adapted CED via the car area network to permit a car occupant to control the adapted CED to permit the occupant to play a video game using the video game display. One or more audio and/or visual devices coupled to the CAN may also be controlled by commands transmitted from the adapted CED or from the multimedia controller over the CAN.
In another example emulation embodiment, the adapted consumer electronics device includes an emulator or transcompiler for emulating hardware functionality of one or more dedicated video game platforms. The emulated hardware includes CPU hardware, graphics hardware, and audio hardware functionalities of the one dedicated video game platform. Any consumer electronics device equipment coupled to the car area network may be controlled using commands from the adapted consumer electronics device sent over the car area network. The adapted consumer electronics device may deliver to the video game display audio and visual information over an audio/visual bus coupled between the one consumer electronics device and the video game display. Alternatively, the adapted consumer electronics device may deliver to the video game display digitally encoded audio and visual information from the one consumer electronics device over the car area network assuming the car area network has sufficient bandwidth to transfer the information to permit satisfactory game play.
A menu is displayed to a car occupant including consumer electronic device options and video game options. The selected menu option is received over the car area network at the adapted consumer electronic device. If the selected menu option is a video game, the game selection is provided to the adapted consumer electronic device over the car area network. A game data file corresponding to the game selection is transferred over the car area network to the adapted consumer electronic device. Executable code in the adapted consumer electronic device is executed in order to run the selected video game corresponding to the stored game data file. Audio and video game information is displayed to the car occupant. Game play commands from the car occupant entered on a controller by the car occupant are transmitted by the controller over the car area network to the adapted consumer electronic device.